To Come to an Understanding
by Safaia Bara
Summary: Ken feels the need to know why Takeru attacked him back at the base. He finds out a bit more about the Child of Hope and learns that they are more alike than he realized.


Another Digimon fic, this was inspired by FallenQueen2's fic, "Tai Knows What To Do". It also has roots stemming from Takeru's thoughts about Ken in episode 25, as well as a conversation the Digidestined had in episode 26 when they were discussing whether or not to trust Ken. This takes place after that, but before that spat between Ken and Iori in episode 30.

This is strictly a friendship fic between Takeru and Ken, my two favorite characters from Adventure 02, even though there is some implied Takari, and possible Sorato if you look hard enough (it wasn't intentional, I'm not really interested in the whole Taichi/Sora/Yamato triangle thing. Romance in general isn't high on my list of favorite genres when it comes to Digimon fanfiction- unless it's between Takeru and Hikari.)

I know in my other fic, "Similar to You", I used the English names of the characters, but this time I'm going to try using the Japanese names to see which ones feel better for me to write.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The characters and story are the property of Akiyoshi Hongo,Toei Animation, Bandai, and Fuji Television. I do own this storyline.

O_O

To Come to an Understanding

Ichijouji Ken rested in the shade of a large fir tree nestled in the center of Odaiba Park. There had been a lull in activity in the Digiworld, so the Digidestined, new and old, had decided to meet for a relaxing afternoon. Ken wasn't sure if he should even be there- he was compelled to go, against his better judgment, after Daisuke begged him to come until he finally gave in.

Ken, being the first to arrive, let his thoughts wander to less peaceful times, more specifically, his former reign as the Digimon Kaiser. As he reflected on all of the bad decisions he'd made, much to his dismay, one confrontation between the Digidestined and himself flew to the forefront of his mind. His fight with Takeru.

He never understood why the Child of Hope had become so enraged when he created Chimairamon, but it was blatantly obvious that something traumatic had caused such a reaction from him. The child prodigy had thought of asking Takeru about it, multiple times, but it was either not the time or not the place. But the nagging feeling that he had to apologize for some unknown reason would not leave him alone. It was decided: today he would _make_ time to talk to Takeru.

"Ken, what's the matter?" a small, green digimon questioned from the boy's side, "You looked like you were thinking really hard about something."

Ken glanced over and smiled lightly at his partner. "It's nothing, Minomon, just remembering the past."

Minomon sighed and hopped into his partner's lap, "You know, you can't change the past, but you can learn from your mistakes and move forward."

"I know, but something's been bothering me lately. Remember after I created Chimairamon and set him loose on the others for the first time? Then Takeru infiltrated my base and attacked me?" Minomon nodded, "Well, I don't get why Takeru was so angry about it, and I feel like I need to know. If I want the rest of the Digidestined to be able to trust me, I need to find out what I did and make it right."

"How are you going to do that, Ken?"

"First I'm going to talk to Takeru. He's one of the few people who doesn't completely loathe me, and the others seem to trust him the most. If I can make amends with him, maybe there's hope for me to reconcile with the rest of them. I know Daisuke trusts me, but that doesn't seem to have any affect on the others."

Before the baby digimon had a chance to comment, a voice rang out from across the park, calling out to them. Daisuke, Miyako, and Hikari strode over, each of them carrying the baby forms of their own partners, Chibimon, Poromon, and Nyaromon. Taichi strolled along behind them, his hands laced together behind his head. The younger, spiky-haired boy sped up as they got closer, while the girls fell back, keeping their distance from the boy genius. Ken internally winced. _'Of course they'd stay away from me. After everything I've done, I don't blame them.'_

"Ken, dude, what are you doing here so early?"

"Ah, well, it was a long trip so I wanted to leave early. I guess there wasn't as much traffic as I expected," he lied. Honestly, he wanted some time alone to figure out how to approach Takeru.

Daisuke accepted the fib without question and sat down next to Ken, mindlessly gabbing about something pertaining to their next soccer match. Ken was only half-listening; his thoughts were still preoccupied with his apology to the Child of Hope.

The rest of the Digidestined slowly arrived; Iori with Upamon, Jyou, Sora, and Koushiro, until only Takeru and Yamato were missing. Hikari was the first to ask where they were.

Sora grinned, "Yamato had to go to band practice and Takeru volunteered to help with the clean up."

"I don't think 'volunteer' would be the right word to use, Sora. It was more like I was threatened."

The group turned to see the blond brothers walking towards them, Yamato's arm hanging lazily around his younger brother's neck.

"Aw, Teeks, I'm hurt. You really didn't want to help me? I guess you only stayed so I wouldn't tell Hikari about that time when you-"

Yamato was cut off with Takeru slapping a hand over his mouth and shushing him, glaring at him icily as a blush spread across his cheeks. Tokomon, who had been in Takeru's arms, wisely jumped to the ground and walked away as a scuffle broke out between the two. The fight lasted a whole five minutes until Yamato had his little brother pinned beneath him and began tickling him mercilessly.

Laughter from the rest of the group stopped their brawl and they stood up, their clothes dirty and rumpled. Yamato pulled Takeru into a headlock and gave him a quick noogie before walking off, leaving the poor boy out of breath and rubbing his sore head. His face was red, although it was unclear whether it was from embarrassment or laughing too hard. Most likely both.

The rest of the younger Digidestined, save one boy genius, joined him as he fell to the ground with the thud.

"Ken, come on over!" Daisuke called. Ken thought up a quick excuse to decline.

"No thanks, I'm comfortable in the shade right now. Maybe later." He missed the small frown that pulled at Takeru's lips.

"Just leave him, Daisuke. I don't know why you invited him anyway," Miyako growled just loud enough for Ken to hear.

"Miyako!"

Ken looked down in shame. He noticed Minomon staring longingly at something. Following his gaze, he saw the rest of the Chosen digimon playing in he grass. "You can go join them if you want."

"Are you sure, Ken? I don't mind keeping you company."

Ken shook his head and smiled, "No, I'll be fine. You go on and have fun."

Minomon looked up at his partner one more time before jumping off to play with the others.

Another twenty minutes passed before the group decided that it was time to eat. Or rather, Daisuke's stomach decided for them. Ken remained seated under the tree, not really hungry. He only looked up when he saw a pair of teal boots next to him.

Takeru was standing over him holding two plates of food, a smile lighting up his face, "Mind if I join you?"

Ken just shook his head and moved over a little so Takeru could sit down next to him. They began eating their food in a slightly awkward silence, both trying to figure out what to say.

Just as the dark haired boy opened his mouth, Takeru started speaking, "You're not alone, you know."

"What?"

"Everyone is susceptible to the powers of evil, not just you. It's something we all have to deal with," The blond looked him directly in the eye, "People make mistakes. Are you sorry for what you've done?"

Ken stared back at him without blinking, "Of course I am."

Takeru smiled, "Then I think you're on your way."

Ken tilted his head in confusion, "On my way? To what?"

"Gaining everyone else's trust and forgiveness."

Ken looked at him in shock. "But how? After everything I've done, how can you treat me like I'm such a good person? I'm a killer."

Takeru looked away, sighed, and leaned back against the tree, "You and I have more in common than you think. As I said, you're not the only one who can fall victim to the darkness. It can happen to the best of us," he chuckled without humor.

Ken looked at Takaishi Takeru as if he was seeing him for the first time, "You were…"

Takeru closed his eyes and grimaced, "Yup, I've been there. It happened four years ago on our first trip to the Digiworld. We had just defeated Etemon when Taichi was brought back here, and we were left behind. While he was gone, everyone went their separate ways until it was just me and Yamato. Then my brother left, and I was losing hope of ever seeing anyone again."

"But you're the Child of _Hope_."

"Ironic, isn't it? The bearer of the Crest of Hope had no hope left. It was then that I was deceived by Picodevimon. He made me believe that no one cared about me. None of my friends. Not my brother. Not even Tokomon." Their eyes roamed over the grassy area and saw both of their partners together napping under a tree not too far away.

"Picodevimon had me almost completely pulled in when Taichi came back and found me."

"But you were just a child."

"It doesn't matter. Anyone at any age can be drawn into the darkness."

Ken's eyes dropped down to his hands resting in his lap, "But you were able to break free. I wasn't."

"Yes you did, you're free now. And the only reason I was able to get away was because I had my friends there to help me. If not for them, I don't know where I'd be right now. But you," Takeru rested a hand on the boy genius' shoulder, "you were able to come back to your senses by yourself, even if it did take a little longer. You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for."

Takeru chuckled, "Now that I think about it, it was really stupid of me to believe that Tokomon didn't care about me. He'd already sacrificed his life once to save mine," he looked over and saw the surprised look on Ken's face, "That's another thing we have in common. We both know what it's like to lose our partner."

As if their digimon had heard their conversation, both Minomon and Tokomon wandered over to their partners and jumped into their laps. Takeru hugged Tokomon close, "I remember it so vividly, I still have nightmares."

Ken's breath hitched; he could tell that _this_ was the reason behind Takeru's anger back at his base.

"We were up against our most powerful enemy so far, Devimon. Apparently there had been a prophecy of some kind saying that I would be his downfall, so he was trying to kill me. Everyone else had already been beaten, and he was coming after me. But Patamon flew right in front of me and was captured by Devimon instead. That was the very first time he digivolved into Angemon. However, in order to beat Devimon, he had to use up all of his own power; I saw him dissolving in front of my very eyes. He did it to protect me."

Tokomon looked up at Takeru, "Of course I did. And I'd do it again, too."

Takeru smiled, "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

Ken averted his eyes and saw Minomon staring up at him, "When Wormmon was taken away from me, it felt like a giant, gaping hole opened up in my chest. It hurt to even breathe. My heart was missing." He smiled softly at his partner, "But then I remembered a promise I had made to Wormmon a long time ago, I can't remember when. But I promised that I would stay the kind person he wanted me to be. I guess you can see what I great job I did keeping that promise," he muttered sarcastically.

"But, Ken, you did keep your promise. You've become that kind and gentle boy you used to be. That's how I was able to come back to you," Minomon said.

Takeru added, "I agree, I can tell you've changed. You're not the same person you were when you claimed to be the Digimon Kaiser," he smiled, "Do you understand now why I hit you before?"

"Because seeing Devimon brought back bad memories, and I was he one who brought him back, right?" Ken said, looking at Takeru, who shook his head.

"That's only part of it. Sure, seeing him again made me angry, but it was more than that. It's like I told you, you had no idea of the powers you thought you could control. You could say that I was trying to knock some sense into you. I guess my approach didn't work too well," he laughed.

Ken frowned at him, "I still don't understand how you can be so casual with me."

"I think everyone deserves a second chance. You've apologized and are trying to fix your mistakes. As long as you don't slip back into your old habits, I don't see why we can't be friends."

The dark haired boy sighed and looked at the other Digidestined, "I still don't think I deserve it, but if you feel so strongly about it, I have no real reason to doubt you. You're the most honest person I know, and my cheek can attest to that," he chuckled, rubbing the side of his face, "I wish the others were as open-minded as you are."

"Eh, they'll come around. You now how…persuasive…Daisuke can be. And I'll do what I can to help. I believe you've changed, just give them some time to see it."

Ken nodded and looked into the distance, "I think I'd better get going. It's getting late." He stood with Minomon tucked against his chest and looked over to the other children. He saw that they were preoccupied with another argument between Daisuke and Miyako. He turned back to Takeru and bowed, "Thank you for talking with me, I think I have a few more things to think about and figure out."

Takeru stood as well and held Tokomon in one arm, waving his free hand and smiling, "No problem, I hope I was able to help. I guess we'll be seeing you around?"

Ken smiled back, "Maybe…maybe," he mumbled the second time to himself as he loped away in higher spirits than when he had come.

O_O

Well, how'd it turn out? Let me know. I kinda started rambling about halfway through; I lost my train of thought and decided to just write what popped into my head as I went, and this was the final result. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I like it. And I think I'm going to stick with the Japanese names.

I also realized at some point that some of the inspiration for this came to me after I read eva-after's "The Issue of Forgiveness". Just wanted to add that incase someone says anything.

I know the whole thing with Picodevimon (Demidevimon in the dub) trying to bring Takeru over to the dark side is a bit of a stretch (he really did it in order to get the Crest), but in a way it makes sense in my mind, so I added that in here to create another connection between him and Ken that they could talk about.

And, yes, I know that Patamon was never in his baby stage before he Jogressed (DNA Digivolved) with Ankylomon to form Shakkoumon, or that Tailmon (Gatomon) never reverted back to her baby stage, but I wanted all of the digimon to be at the same level (it always bothered me that she was able to stay at her adult level. Just a personal pet peeve of mine).

I was going to add Ken asking what Yamato was going to say about Hikari, but I couldn't thinking of something for him to say. ;) Plus it seemed a little out of character for Ken to ask such a personal question.

I guess that's all for now. It's after one a.m. and I have work tomorrow…or today, rather…

Later!

*SB*


End file.
